M.N. Pokrovskii and the Origins of Soviet Historiography

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Focusing on the career of the Soviet historian M.N. Pokrovskii, the author examines the evolution of historical writing in the first decade of Soviet rule. As Deputy People’s Commissar for Education, Pokrovskii was among those who established the academic institutions of the new regime. The study of Pokrovskii’s writings and the political context in which they were conceived helps explain the origin of interpretations of modern Russian history current in Soviet times. The book can for that reason be regarded as a preliminary to the study of the Russian revolutionary era, and a key to the critical evaluation of the historical sources for the period.

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James D. White is Emeritus Professor of the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He is the author of Red Hamlet: The Life and Ideas of Alexander Bogdanov (2018), Marx and Russia: The Fate of a Doctrine (2018), Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution (2001), Karl Marx and the Intellectual Origins of Dialectical Materialism (1996) and The Russian Revolution 1917-1921 (1994). He has also published many articles on Russian and Soviet history.
Preface
Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Pokrovskii and his Teachers
 1 Family Background
 2 Kliuchevskii
 3 Pokrovskii’s Relations with Kliuchevskii
 4 Vinogradov
 5 Vinogradov’s Historical Views
 6 Readings in Medieval History
 7 Conflict with Struve
 8 Teaching
 9 Liberal Politics
 10 Zemskii sobor and Parliament

2 From Liberal to Bolshevik
 1 Pravda
 2 Idealism and the Laws of History
 3 The Literary-Lecturing Group
 4 The 1905 Revolution in Moscow
 5 Economic Materialism

3 Exile
 1 Vpered
 2 Writing Russian History
 3 Trotsky
 4 War
 5 The 1917 Revolution
 6 Brest-Litovsk
 7 Deputy Commissar of Education

4 Pre-revolutionary Historical Works
 1 The History of Russia in the XIX Century
 2 Chapters on Foreign Policy
 3 Russian History from the Earliest Times
 4 Study in the History of Russian Culture

5 Istpart
 1 Trotsky’s From October to Brest-Litovsk
 2 Istpart
 3 Iakovlev
 4 Pokrovskii’s Debate with Trotsky
 5 Local Istparts

6 Institute of Red Professors
 1 Institute of Red Professors
 2 Departments
 3 Russian Historiography
 4 Stalin’s Judgement
 5 Genkina
 6 The Society of Marxist Historians

7 Post-Revolutionary Historical Works
 1 Tsarism and Revolution
 2 The Brief History of Russia
 3 Studies in the History of the Russian Revolutionary Movement
 4 The Imperialist War

8 Debates on Imperialism
 1 Slepkov
 2 Vanag
 3 Soviet Anniversaries
 4 People’s Will

9 Merchant Capitalism in Retreat
 1 Merchant Capitalism
 2 The Academy Case
 3 Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution
 4 Stalin’s Letter to Proletarskaia revoliutsiia

10 Epilogue
 1 Stalin and History
 2 Shestakov’s Textbook
 3 Against the Historical Conceptions of M.N.Pokrovskii

Conclusion

Appendix: The Debate between Pokrovskii and Trotsky on the Special Features of Russia’s Historical Development
Bibliography
Index
All interested in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union as well as the history of Marxism and the Marxist approach to history.
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